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Robinson Crusoe

The Progression of the Eighteenth Century Novel Shows How Society Takes Over the Role of God The progression of the Eighteenth Century novel charts the transformation of the role of God into the role of society. In Daniel Defoe's early Eighteenth Century novel, Robinson Crusoe, God makes the laws, gives out the punishments, and creates the terror. By the end of the century, the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror announce to the world that society is taking over the role of God and now people will make laws, give out punishments, and incite terror. Early Eighteenth Century novel, Robinson Crusoe, shows the development of a new self, one conflicted with the idea of both relying on God's Providence while also realizing their own power to make things happen. The novel shows the development of Homo Economico, the economic man. With the voyages to the new colonies, many lower and middle class men prove able to create their own fortunes overnight. The concept of the Great Chain of Being becomes lost when members of the lower classes become wealthier than many of the upper class aristocrats. Now many men from the lower classes buy land and/or titles. When lower class members become landowners, the idea of Divine Right to rule over the land no longer proves valid. Defoe illustrates society's changes through Crusoe, who battles with the notion of God's Providence. At certain moments he thanks God for His Providence, but then later conceives that actually God did not cause the miracle but he did. For example, when the English barley sprung up from the ground on Crusoe's remote desert island with improper climate for growing corn, Crusoe thought "these the pure Production of Providence" and "this touch'd [his] Heart a little, and brought tears to [his] Eyes and he began to bless" (58) God. He believed so fervently that the sprouting of the corn was an act of God that he walked all over the island "peering into every Corner, and under every...

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...Literature
Mrs. Folkerts
RobinsonCrusoe Essay
RobinsonCrusoe by Daniel Defoe delivers a firsthand account about the time in Robinson Crusoe’s life during which he found himself stranded alone on an island off the coast of Trinidad. Throughout the twenty-seven years he spent stranded on the island, Crusoe undergoes a plethora of changes as an individual, both positive and negative. Three positive and prodigious changes underwent by Crusoe were his acceptance of Jesus Christ as his Savior, his newfound affirmative outlook on situations in his life, and his capability to survive frugally upon the island.
As is the case with many individuals who land in situations where their life is on the line, they find themselves calling out to God in desperation and they become aware of the fact that they have needed Christ in their lives from the genesis of their existence. RobinsonCrusoe was no exception to this commonality. Prior to his violent arrival on the island, which in due course he bestows the name, “Island of Despair” (Defoe, 53), Crusoe possesses only a smidgen of regard for Christianity. Calling on God only when convenient for himself, he soon forgets about Jehovah, whom he expected so much from, yet granted such petite attention and regard to. As is seen when Crusoe encounters his first storm out at sea. It is so...

...Worksheet 1 – RobinsonCrusoe
Read the excerpt provided and answer the following questions. Check a reference book if necessary, but please make sure to express and justify your opinion about the points below in the first place.
a. Which adjectives would you apply to the main character according to the texts you have read?
I would define RobinsonCrusoe as a dominant, generous, self-sufficient, brave, strong, smart, surviving, imaginative, practical, adaptable and hard working man.
RobinsonCrusoe finds himself alone in a lost island. He manages to find water and food, and to make tools that will help him fishing, cooking… He becomes a self-sufficient man because he’s got no choice. In order to keep himself alive, he adopts a brave and strong attitude that leads him to discover and create new ways to take care of himself. He experiments, he tries his new ideas, and he works hard because he knows that this will bring him the food needed, etc. Also, when he meets Friday, he shows himself dominant and superior to him, but even though Friday becomes his slave, he still is generous and comprehensive with him. Being smart turns into a necessity when surviving depends on it. And he did for 25 years.
b. Man and nature in the novel. What is Robinson Crusoe’s attitude towards the island and its resources?
RobinsonCrusoe uses what ha can...

...everyday life and ordinary people. From the story of RobinsonCrusoe by Daniel Defoe society is shown the constant battle between being a devout religious follower & a moral, economical businessperson and the importance divine dispensation and providence. As Crusoe sometimes learns lessons Defoe hopes that those reading his text are able to learn not only take from the good lessons Crusoe learn’s in his life but also learning from the bad and what they should not do.
The battle of the devout, religious follower and the moral businessperson is shown and argued through the concept of surplus in the Protestant religion. As Crusoe quotes from the bible, “Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, or the Pride of Life”, he is talking about what is wrong with the world and how those who rid themselves of any surplus of things they do not need, will live a morally just life. (155) This quote from the bible speaks on everything in the world, the desires of the body, and everything that they eyes see and pride in one’s achievements and possessions, and how these are not from the Father but are from this frugal world. It claims that the Father gives the world what they need and anything that they want is a sin. This is reinforced through Crusoe and his problem of accumulation, one only needs enough money for a comfortable survival and no more because any surplus is a sin and will just cause you to...

...When one thinks of the character RobinsonCrusoe, stunning images of a deserted island, a free, self-sufficient man, and a shipwreck come to mind. However, to understand who RobinsonCrusoe is as a character, one must first understand the society that he was raised in and how that contributes to his actions on the island. In other words, with the constant stress of trying to make something of himself in Seventeenth Century Europe, it seemed the only way out was to get out and start a life of his own. Thus, Robinson’s adventures were born. However, throughout the novel readers are presented with the sense that Robinson only craves to be a free and self-sufficient man on his island, with no societal pressures, laws, or other citizens to govern his life. Though this idea may seem to be the underlying cause of Robinson’s actions on the island, it is made clear by the end of the novel that Crusoe never becomes the self-sufficient and solitary identity he craves, rather he becomes king of the island controlling all aspects of the island, both animate and inanimate as well as the individuals that cross his path. Crusoe’s characterization from a confused young adult to a King marks RobinsonCrusoe as being one of the first novels because of the growth and individualism of Crusoe himself.
At the start of the novel, Crusoe is portrayed as...

...Nicole M. Davila February 12, 2013
The first modern narrative novel that was published in the English language is “RobinsonCrusoe”. The book’s main character, named RobinsonCrusoe, spends trapped on an island near Trinidad for twenty eight years, where he discovers his newly found faith within God. The principles of predestination, Divine Providence, Lutheranism and Calvinism that were predominant during this time, were written and explicitly depicted within the novels plot. Throughout this extended amount of time Crusoe establishes in the island a form of government.
These of which were highly influenced by the ideas of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. He used the racial concepts of discrimination and racial prejudicing ideas within his hierarchy to have control over his “subjects”. This involves a new kind of slavery, declaring it is better than the Spanish and Portuguese. (Defoe 30) This was all noted after he declared himself absolute monarch of this island. He gave power to himself that was thought to be given by God. He defies this purpose of God given power and imposes fear over his “subjects”. Allegorically representing slavery and colonization that was taking place during the time it was being written.
A noble savage is a character that is not...

...RobinsonCrusoe: A Depiction of the European Ideology
In a society where the exploitation of the natural resources of a colony was the engine of a nation’s prosperity and power, the necessity of a workforce was vital for that country’s development. Europe found that force through the practice of slavery, subjugating natives of the West Indies and “Negroes” from Africa since they were regarded as savages and therefore as inferior beings. This institution, as well as that of serfdom, was deeply ingrained in the Old World due to the intense trading that the eighteenth century presented. As a result, many books from this period—especially travel literature—reflect these themes in their pages. In Daniel Defoe’s novel RobinsonCrusoe they can be seen in various parts of the book, such as the time when Crusoe became a slave himself; when he had for a brief time his boy Xury; when he set in a voyage to acquire Negroes from Guinea; and in his subsequent relationship with Friday. Thus, some of the events narrated throughout the whole story illustrate the colonialist and imperialistic nature of the main character, which in turn portrays white civilization’s idea of superiority.
From the beginning of the book, Crusoe is presented as a man from the “middle state”. According to his father, that was the best position a man could ever have—a point of view that Crusoe will come to...

...Language of RobinsonCrusoe
Daniel Dafoe’s popular novel, originally titled The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of RobinsonCrusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates (iii), like most classics underwent many editions through the years. However nothing but the first edition, which is the basis of this essay, can give us the look and feel of the time as intended to be shown by the author.
Early Modern English
According to Volume 14 of The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes, Early Modern English period marked the expansion of the use of the English language outside England. But since English was spread at various times it has been subjected to different influences and additional variations caused by attempts at etymological spelling (Ward et al ch 15 sec 3 par 1). These were evident in the novel in two aspects of language: grammar and vocabulary (Ward et al ch 15 sec 1 par 1-2).
Among the inflectional changes during the early modern English was the dropping of the weak vowel in verbs ending in –ed (Ward et al. ch 15 sec 4 par. 7). Examples of these manifested not only in the title (the word...

...Religion in RobinsonCrusoe
Daniel Defoe’s published the book in 1719. It talks about the life and adventures of a young boy about eighteen years old called “RobinsonCrusoe” from England. Crusoe's father wants him to be a good, middle-class guy. Crusoe, who wants nothing more than to travel around in a ship, is definitely not into this idea. He struggles against the authority of both his father and God and decides instead to go in an adventure on the sea. After sailing around for a while, he makes a bit of money in trade, but then is caught and made into a slave off the coast of Africa, and then he escaped with a friend. On a voyage he gets shipwrecked and he left alone on a deserted island. Crusoe finds strength in God, which he has been reacquainted with while on the shoals of secularism he meets with Friday, a native man whom he is able to rescue from the cannibals. Crusoe teaches Friday English and converts him to Christianity. The two become like father and son (more or less). Friday and Crusoe also rescue a Spaniard and Friday's father from a different group of cannibals. Crusoe then returns to Europe with Friday, where he comes into a great deal of money from his sugar plantations. Crusoe gets married and eventually revisits the island in his late years. The novel ends with promise of more adventures for him in the sequel.
My...